CN: We'll start with RadioShack and Leopard Trek. The merger between the two teams and what exactly went wrong?

JB: Okay, well in 2011 RadioShack renewed for two more years and then finally we got to the point where we made that 'fantastic' decision of making the merger.

CN: How did that come about?

JB: Not a lot of people understood but the centre piece to the merger was Trek. We had the usual set up, as always: a team from before with an American company, title sponsor RadioShack, second sponsor Nissan and then Trek, which was a long term partner.

Then all of a sudden we found out that Trek had signed an exclusivity deal with Leopard from 2012 onwards. I guess Trek made that decision based on the feeling that RadioShack would not renew and that the team would be finished after Lance retired. They signed the deal with Leopard for 2012-2014. Their assumption was that they could talk to Becca, smooth things over, and that they would be able to carry on with us. But they were wrong and Becca came back and said 'no, it's exclusive and if the contract is not respected there are going to be consequences'.

CN: Did you need to merge?

JB: We didn't need to merge but at the same time the budget was significantly lower for us in 2012. We still could have had a WorldTour team in 2012 but not with the level of quality in riders that we had hoped for. The biggest winner of the merger though was Leopard because all of a sudden they went from having no title sponsor to having 15 million USD a year extra.

It all happened so fast but it started back in August 2011. The main issue was that we came with RadioShack, Nissan, staff, riders and a lot of money to a team that had no title sponsor and from the beginning it was just a disaster. It was just terrible. In hindsight it has been a very bad decision.

CN: What was the first thing to go wrong?

JB: I guess what the majority of the Leopard members didn't get was that, yes, they had their own little group but the guy who was bankrolling the team [Becca] was looking for money and whether they like him or not, if you have the choice between having a sponsor or paying out of your own pocket you're going to choose a sponsor. We, the RadioShack 2011 part were seen as the intruders and the only thing the Leopard guys never questioned was the fact that us coming to the team meant the team could pay the bills.

CN: When was the first time you spoke to Cancellara and the Schlecks?

JB: That's another thing. So the business deal had been done between the senior management of Leopard which was Becca and two of his business partners. Until that was done there were no talks or conversations with any riders. But in the meantime the rumour was out there, because in cycling its basically impossible to not have anything leaked, and these uninformed riders were unhappy and started to criticise the merger from the very beginning, without having all the information.

But from the beginning you could see that it was going to be train wreck. On the one side there was … this attitude of 'why are you coming to our group?' The merger, it just wasn't a good decision. It was … it was only good for Becca.

I definitely underestimated it. We came into this whole new set up, this whole new culture of how a team is run. That's when I realised that there was going to be this clash. There was no leadership in Leopard 2011. It was the riders who were deciding things. The Schlecks, Cancellara, they were deciding everything and everyone else was just doing whatever they wanted. I could see that from the beginning, and I could see that it was going to be next to impossible to change that habit. It was just a struggle.

CN: At the team presentation in Luxembourg in 2012, what was the atmosphere like? I remember speaking to you and you wouldn't confirm Frank Schleck's race programme and I spoke to Fuglsang and he didn't seem happy with anything.

JB: Nobody was happy. No one was happy with the situation. I guess also because there were two completely different visions of what a professional cycling team was. They criticised me for seeing it more like a company, a corporation that could perform. They saw it like a little family. I can understand that, it's a nice thing to have, but it's not always possible. So there was this huge imbalance.

Both Andy and Frank are good guys and both are very talented bike riders but I thought though that they could do more with their talents. Turns out maybe that's not the case. I definitely underestimated the brother bond they have in everything. I also underestimated the brother relationship with Kim Andersen, who is basically like a father to those two.

CN: At Liege that year Andy said that Kim would be at the Tour, but already you'd stated that Kim wouldn't be there and that Frank would do the Giro. What was going on?

JB: They were a group of guys who were just doing whatever they wanted to do and moving into a system where you don't always get what you want. Now I see they've gone back to whatever they want to do and things aren't going much better. Again I don't want to criticise anyone's habits but things didn't match and it wasn't possible to work together.

CN: What about the decision to send Frank Schleck to the Giro because on paper he could have won that race?

JB: In my opinion, yes he could. He could have won it yes, but it wasn't his goal from the start of the season so he wasn't preparing for it. He could have done better than just going home. I was there when he abandoned. I still don't know if it was planned or not. I arrived the day before and he'd done a good race that day. From there on I thought it was going to be okay and that it was only going to get better. Physically he was there but mentally he wasn't and it was all about the Tour for him. It's a shame because I just wasn't able to get close enough to them.

CN: What do you put that down to?

JB: I put to down to two factors. I'm not going to say it's impossible to work with those guys and I have my own way of seeing things. We could just never find a compromise. I'm not saying it's my fault or theirs, we just didn't click but in everyone's' mind at Leopard I was the intruder.

CN: Were the riders a team?

JB: I think they are now but in the first year of the merger there was a big division. It was like RadioShack and Leopard, different teams but racing in the same jersey. It was the same with the staff.

CN: When did the situation with Becca start to fall apart?

JB: Not really until I left the team. I never had a bad relationship with Becca, on the contrary. Then for some reason we had the issue with the loan.

CN: But just going through it stage by stage, you weren't at the Tour in 2012 because of the USADA report but whose decision was it for you stay at home?

JB: We talked about it and we agreed on it.

CN: We get press releases all the time, and good example came from BMC a few weeks ago, where someone said they were leaving the team but it's clear they were released from their contract by their management. What was the situation with you?

JB: It was after the USADA report came out. When was it?

CN: October.

JB: Okay so I resigned straight after that. We [Bruyneel and Becca] went over the main points but that was it. I couldn't do anything anymore and if I didn't want to harm the team I had to leave. There was too much damage and the accusations were too heavy. It was a mutual decision. I have no hard feelings about that at all.

CN: At what point in 2012 did you realise that leaving the team was a real possibility?

JB: Not until I saw the report.

CN: You must have had some idea about what the report was going to be like. It wasn't… well it wasn't going to be positive, was it?

JB: I can't say anything on that subject.

CN: So can you explain about the loan to Becca and where things stand there. He still owes you money doesn't he?

JB: I gave him a loan and they paid back part of it earlier in the year and the rest was due. It wasn't paid and we had to go to court and there was a ruling that they had to pay by August 5 and I've not seen anything.

CN: Going back to the Schlecks, where did this initial sense of 'we don't want to work with Johan Bruyneel' come from? Was it because they were concerned with the USADA report coming out?

JB: That wasn't an issue when we started to talk in 2011. I think they just didn't want work with me, Cancellara too and that was all clear from the beginning. They really saw it as "their" team and they went far in making a lot of decisions and they wanted to be involved in everything. From the beginning there was no trust.

CN: Did you trust them?

JB: Not necessarily. I thought at the beginning, and again I made some mistakes and I thought it would be simple, so I can blame myself for that part but something like that needs time. I think the new team that's going to be established in 2014, that's going to be one team. It's going to be the Leopard team again as there will be certain people who can only function in that structure. For example, let's say I was still there now one of the things I would have done was send Andy to the Vuetla. He had his issues last year and a bad spring but he in the last week at the Tour there was some improvement. You would think that the condition he built up having missed all the races, the Vuelta would have been good for him. He could have built on that and he could have made up for all the time lost. Instead he's in Colorado and he's far down in that race.

CN: How did the Leopard situation compare to the 2009 situation where you had Armstrong coming back and Alberto Contador in your squad?

JB: This [Radioshack – Leopard] was a lot more difficult. The Astana experience wasn't easy but it was different. I was in charge then. At Leopard I was never really in charge and they just did whatever they wanted to do.

There was of course tension in 2009 but it wasn't an easy situation. Lance had decided to comeback. We spoke and we decided to do it together. It was definitely something that Contador didn't like.